


Lies and Painted Smiles

by silver_skins



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Character Study, Drabble, Light Angst, One Shot, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Young Azula, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, feel free to tell me, for the first time i actually wrote this instead of sleeping, its very short, just needed to write smth to keep my mind off life, not edited at all so it might be ABSOLUTE shit, the fire nation family is fucked up, took me 10 minutes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28214811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_skins/pseuds/silver_skins
Summary: Young Azula, in the garden, between firebending lessons. Drabble.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Lies and Painted Smiles

The sky was awfully blue today, and Agni’s light was warm and burned her face in just the right amount. She breathed in the sunlight, and reached her hand up towards the giant chasm above, closing her fist around a portion of it, and watched the clouds vanish from under her fingers. One day, she would reach up and snatch a piece of it for real. Her father had said so. 

Azula smiled a bit. She was nothing, if not loyal to the Fire Lord. 

Someone called her name. Zuko. She straightened suddenly, hastily smoothing back her hair—foolish, foolish, Zuko. All lies, and painted smiles, and sickening weakness. Like Mother. Lies and painted smiles. Stupid woman, foolish boy. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree (Azula though of how Zuko pushed Mai into the pond and giggled in satisfaction all by herself in the garden). She stood up, fixing her robes and brushing the grass off of them. Father would not be happy to find her there, she was sure of it, but her tutors had told her to find a quiet place to get ‘piece of mind’, whatever that was. It sounded stupid. Her mind was fully formed. 

The clouds moved, and Agni's light blazed onto her skin. Azula inhaled it in, slowly. As she exhaled, she watched the fire billow from her nose and mouth, inspecting every ember of it for a flash of blue—she was sure it had happened before. All that was left was to practice. It wouldn’t be too hard to make the whole flame blue. 

She would reach for pieces of the sky, instead. And her fire would be just as blue and burn just as hot.

**Author's Note:**

> im...not proud of this. not even sure why im posting it. this was supposed to be the beginning of something much longer but i dont have the energy to write those anymore and it doesnt even feel like its any good. eh. i write for myself and no one else. merry christmas i love u all <3 
> 
> also please leave comments! :) Any comment helps so much...


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